Civil engineering insights into digitally retrofitting infrastructure assets and networks

Civil engineering insights into digitally
retrofitting infrastructure assets and networks
About digital retrofit
By 2050 the UK population is expected to number about 77 million1 with the economy worth up to £3.7 trillion.2 Much of
the UK population’s need for transport, energy, water supply, wastewater and flood defence services will need to be met
by infrastructure that exists today and has done for many years. For example, the majority of the existing rail network was
established by 18703 and 70% of UK dams within the scope of the Reservoirs Act 1975 were built before 1900.4

Boosting productivity, economic growth and creating new routes to market, through improved physical and digital
connectivity, will rely on upgrading these existing infrastructure assets and networks both physically and, importantly,
digitally. Digitally retrofitting older infrastructure assets can offer improvements to design, maintenance, reliability and user
experience, while extending the useful life of structures. Investment in new and replacement infrastructure will continue to
be necessary, but meeting and sustaining future need will require the infrastructure we have today to continue to work
well, if not better. This makes financial sense as it can avoid large new capital investments, while also helping to minimise
the disruption and environmental impacts, including carbon emissions, associated with new construction.

While there are ambitious plans to digitalise and automate some infrastructure networks,5 digital retrofitting need not
always be complicated or costly. The installation of sensors to detect changes in a structure and the deployment of drones
can help to minimise the costs of maintenance and repair, and ensure issues are noticed and addressed more quickly.

Purpose of this paper
This paper provides insight into the potential benefits of digitally retrofitting infrastructure assets and networks, examining
challenges to doing so and drawing on lessons from existing examples of digital retrofit. It has been developed through
discussions with ICE Fellows, a round table of senior sector stakeholders and available published evidence.

The potential benefits of digital retrofitting
Cost and environmental efficiencies
Digitalisation is increasingly central to the delivery of infrastructure and improving asset performance. The take-up of
digital processes and technology within the infrastructure sector itself, however, lags behind other key sectors of the
economy. In 2017, just 7.7% of construction businesses within the EU 28 had a high or very high Digital Intensity Index
(the ‘availability at firm level of 12 different digital technologies’) against an average of 20% across all EU businesses.6
There is evidence to suggest that the cost of infrastructure maintenance in the UK is higher compared to other countries,
with a study on track maintenance suggesting a weighted average cost for metro systems that is 46% higher in the UK. 7

1
  Eurostat, ONS (2017) Overview of the UK Population: March 2017
2
  ICE (2016) National Needs Assessment
3
  Government Office for Science (2018) The History of Transport Systems in the UK
4
  ICE (2015) A Guide to the Reservoirs Act 1975
5
  Network Rail (2020) Digital Railway
6
  European Commission (2018) Integration of Digital Technology
7
  HM Treasury, Infrastructure UK (2010) Infrastructure Cost Review

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Maintaining an infrastructure asset over its life cycle often costs more, in economic and environmental terms, than the
initial capital investment. Improved decision-making through the availability of consistent, quality data is one of the most
potent ways that digitalisation can unlock value. Normalising the automated collection and storage of data that is
accessible from anywhere, on multiple platforms and devices, creates considerable time and cost savings when compared
to more traditional methods of data collection, storage, access and maintenance management. This is best facilitated
through a common approach to data modelling, allowing interoperability so that separate databases can interact with one
another.
The demand-side benefits of digitally retrofitted assets can be significant, notably on energy efficiency – a 2017 report by
the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy estimated a reduction in energy consumption of 18% in offices,
14% in shops and 8% in hospitals using retrofitted smart technologies.8 Such an approach could cut heating and
ventilation costs by as much as 40%.

Extending asset life cycles
Digitally retrofitting infrastructure provides a route to prolonging an asset’s life cycle by boosting resilience, creating
improved conditions for asset users and improving efficiency.9 This approach can be maximised through predictive
maintenance, where sensors provide real-time data about condition and performance, optimising asset maintenance.10

There are examples of software environments which enable assets to schedule their own repairs based on sensor-
gathered data, with Boeing implementing such a system in 2011.11 Balfour Beatty sets out a possible future in its 2017
report Innovation 2050, outlining that the Internet of Things will be able to power smart buildings in smart cities, with assets
able to order their own replacement parts as necessary.12

What needs to be done to enable digital retrofitting?
Digital skills and training
An ICE member survey as part of a skills review in 2018 identified that the development and adoption of digital technology
was perceived as the main trend that will have an impact on skills.13 In order to deliver digital retrofitting of assets,
upskilling of the existing workforce is required. There is an acute skills deficit in the wider economy when it comes to digital
skills and roles related to STEM subjects.14 Estimates suggest that by 2030 five million workers could become acutely
under-skilled in basic digital skills, with up to two-thirds of the workforce facing some level of under-skilling.15 The more
infrastructure assets generate and rely on data, the greater the need will become for all elements of the workforce invested
in the design, construction, operation and decommissioning of infrastructure to become more digitally literate.

Cyber security
In the UK in 2017, 590 significant cyber incidents were reported to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), including
foreign-state attacks on UK telecommunication and energy infrastructure.16 According to the German Bundesamt für
Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI – Federal Office for Information Security), in Germany during 2018 there were
around 114 million new malware programs and over 110,000 bot infections each day, aimed mostly at mobile devices or

8
  American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (2017) Smart Buildings: A Deeper Dive into Market Segments
9
  ICE (2017) State of the Nation 2017: Digital Transformation
10
   ICE (2018) AI, Machine Learning and Data Science: Shaping the Future of Existing Infrastructure
11
   ICE (2018) ICE Guidance Paper: Intelligent Assets for Tomorrow’s Infrastructure
12
   Balfour Beatty (2017) Innovation 2050: A Digital Future for the Infrastructure Industry
13
   ICE (2018) ICE Professional Skills
14
   Industrial Strategy Council (2020) Annual Report
15
   Industrial Strategy Council (2019) UK Skills Mismatch in 2030
16
   National Cyber Security Centre 2017 Annual Review

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devices on the Internet of Things (IoT).17 Of these there were 145 reports relating to critical infrastructure, with 55 affecting
the transport, energy and water sectors, which had the potential to create supply bottlenecks or disruption to public
security.18

Widescale digital retrofitting of infrastructure assets and networks can create new vulnerabilities. Assets and systems that
are retrofitted with technology such as smart sensors and communication packages to take full advantage of the IoT may
bring numerous efficiencies and lead to better decision-making, but between 2015 and 2018, 20% of organisations
observed at least one IoT-based attack.19

Asset owners and their supply chains have increasingly turned paper processes into digital ones, handling vast amounts of
data in the operation of critical infrastructure.20 Protecting these systems and data against malicious actions is vital as a
line of defence against failure. This is well understood in government, which established the National Cyber Crime Unit in
2015, recognising the potential for hostile actors to attack infrastructure with the aim of doing harm to the economy or
individuals.21 The Department for Transport, mindful of the risks of a cyber-security breach in the rail sector, has issued
guidance on the safe and secure operation of electronic and software-driven systems in use on the network.22

The digital twin
The rise of digital design applications has led to the concept of the digital twin, a representation of a physical infrastructure
asset in a digital format which can aid the modelling and understanding of that asset. This concept is particularly important
with regards to digitally retrofitting existing assets, as it enables asset and network owners to understand where a system
could benefit from improvements, allowing for value to be unlocked in new ways and helping to re-prioritise asset
management.23 The concept of a national digital twin – an ecosystem of digital twins connected via securely shared data –
and an information management framework, which would enable effective information sharing, is an extension of this
idea.24

Values to inform this approach have been proposed in The Gemini Principles, published by the Centre for Digital Built
Britain.25 These are nine principles relating to three general areas – purpose, trust and function – designed to guide the
development of the framework and the national digital twin.26 These principles include the need to be open, ensuring
security, being adaptive to evolution and enabling value creation.

Interoperability and common standards
Increasing the digitalisation of existing economic infrastructure, facilitated in part through the roll-out of a full-fibre
broadband network, will enable new methods of working and insights not only within, but also between, assets and
networks.27 Connecting infrastructure assets and networks and greater data sharing could release an additional £15 billion
per year of benefits across the UK infrastructure sectors.28

Perhaps the biggest barrier to achieving this data sharing is the lack of interoperable data. A lack of quality data and of
consistency of data impedes the improvement of models for predicting project estimates29 and a lack of interoperability
between information systems means firms expend considerable time and resources when moving between and within

17
   Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (2019) Report on the State of IT Security in Germany 2019
18
   Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (2018) The State of IT Security in Germany 2018
19
   Gartner (2018) Gartner Says Worldwide IoT Security Spending Will Reach $1.5 Billion in 2018
20
   ICE (2018) In Plain Sight: Assuring the Whole-Life Safety of Infrastructure
21
   Ibid
22
   Department for Transport (2016) Rail Cyber Security: Guidance to Industry
23
   ICE (2017) What is a Digital Twin?
24
   University of Cambridge (2019) Gemini Principles
25
   Centre for Digital Built Britain (2018) The Gemini Principles
26
   University of Cambridge (2019) Gemini Principles
27
   ICE (2020) Civil Engineering Insights on the Roll-Out of Full-Fibre Broadband and Alternative Proposals
28
   Deloitte (2017) New Technologies Case Study: Data Sharing in Infrastructure
29
   ICE (2019) Reducing the Gap between Cost Estimates and Outturns for Major Infrastructure Projects and Programmes

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projects.30 In order for large-scale projects like the national digital twin to operate, interoperable software and data
standards are necessary. Interoperability is a core tenet of the Gemini Principles.31

Common standards would be useful for the wider industry to enable this. Many infrastructure sectors are set up to
encourage competition, particularly in energy and rail, which can lead to fragmentation. At the same time,
interdependencies, where one asset or sector relies on another, are becoming more prevalent. A future Connected and
Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) sector will depend on an expanded, or smarter, energy grid and telecommunications sector.
Technologies like floating solar panels, which reduce the evaporation of water in reservoirs, mean some infrastructure
owners can operate in more than one sector.32

For example, a new asset may increase demand on the existing electrical supply network. With an independent digital
twin, this could be predicted and permitted for in future maintenance costs by that single asset owner, but connected
digital twins could allow the data to be simultaneously communicated to district network operators to work out predicted
demand for similar existing assets. This data can ultimately influence decision-making and lead to improvements in
efficiency and performance on a systems basis.

Public sentiment around digitally enabled infrastructure
The widescale adoption of embedded sensors, automated tracking of passengers on transport networks or real-time
monitoring of the use of energy and water will inevitably raise concerns from the public about the extent to which their lives
are being monitored and what that data is used for.

The UK public are wary of giving away too much information about themselves, with 80% saying that they try to limit the
amount of personal information they either put online or share with companies, and 85% stating they would boycott a
company that repeatedly showed disregard for protecting consumer data.33

ICE’s 2019 policy paper on ‘pay as you go’ roads funding found that, with regards to the potential for car location data
being tracked and shared, as long as appropriate privacy safeguards and oversight is in place, the public will likely come
to accept a new system.34 This is particularly true if the data is managed by a trusted organisation or intermediary, with
public confidence maintained through regulation, privacy laws, anonymisation of data and transparency on what the data
is used for.

While the public are keen to limit the data they share, a 2016 poll by Populus on smart meters found that 83% of those
with a smart meter believed their energy bill was accurate, compared to 65% of those without a smart meter.35 A similar
pattern exists regarding other criteria – people with a smart meter were more likely to trust their energy supplier and better
understand their bill than those without.36

However, digital retrofitting of existing assets has not always had wide acceptance. On smart motorways in the UK, public
acceptability has been low: 68% of drivers believe removing hard shoulders on motorways compromises safety,37 while
only half of drivers who have driven on an ‘all-lane running’ motorway say they would know what to do if they broke down
and were unable to reach a refuge area.38 Concerns over safety prompted a government review in 2020, with plans to
abolish dynamic hard shoulders and speed up the deployment of technology to detect stopped vehicles.39

30
   ICE (2017) State of the Nation 2017: Digital Transformation
31
   Centre for Digital Built Britain (2018) The Gemini Principles
32
   United Utilities (2018) Floating Solar Farm Gets Underway at Lancaster Reservoir
33
   YouGov (2018) 72% of Brits Haven’t Heard about GDPR
34
   ICE (2019) Pay As You Go – Achieving Sustainable Roads Funding in England
35
   Populus (2016) Smart Meters: The Verdict
36
   Ibid
37
   RAC (2019) 68% of Drivers Say Removing Hard Shoulders on Motorways Compromises Safety
38
   Ibid
39
   Gov.UK (2020) Strategic Roads Update: Smart Motorways Evidence Stocktake

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Lessons from existing schemes and projects
The Digital Railway programme
Network Rail currently owns 64,000 signalling assets and spends around £800 million each year maintaining and renewing
them.40 At the current rate of replacement and network growth, maintaining these assets nationwide will become
unsustainable. In addition, most lines operate at peak capacity, with some services up to 200% oversubscribed, and
freight demand increasing by 100% between 2003 and 2017. 41

The Digital Railway programme is designed to retrofit the UK’s existing railways system with digital signalling and
communications to address capacity issues, while also realising significant future savings and making the railways
cheaper to run.42

Adopted technology includes European Train Control Systems, allowing trains to run closer together while maintaining
safe distances, systems to improve driver decision-making on performance and safety, active traffic management and new
telecoms and data systems.43 Network Rail is also seeking to improve training to increase the capability and expertise of
its workforce, and those of partner organisations, to maximise benefits.44

Smart motorways and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles
Smart motorways are a form of active road management designed to increase capacity, smooth traffic flows and allow for
individual management of lanes.45 Around 400 miles of the road network have been converted to a smart motorway
format, with motorways having their hard shoulders converted to ‘all-lane running’ or used on a dynamic basis.46

A smart motorway uses technology that monitors traffic levels, changes the speed limit to smooth traffic flow, activates
warning signs to alert drivers to hazards and closes lanes for safety or to prioritise emergency traffic.47 This technology
takes the form of vehicle detection systems which provide data on traffic flow and which, in turn, set automated, or semi-
automated, traffic messages or speed limit changes.48

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are an as yet unproven concept. However, should their development be
successful, a CAV system would require significant retrofitting of existing roads to meet digital standards that can
accommodate high bandwidth and always-on communications equipment. The Millbrook testing ground, one of several
sites for the testing of CAV technology in the UK, provides a 5G test bed to allow for the testing of connectivity on the
basis of the Internet of Things, provided by fibre cables, masts and base stations.49

Wind turbine optimisation
The application of digital twins in the wind industry is being used to proactively repair and maintain existing wind
turbines.50 By using data to understand the health condition of a turbine, or fleet of turbines, asset owners are provided
with insight into when maintenance is anticipated, enabling maintenance schedules to be optimised and reducing the need
for unplanned maintenance to take place. In turn, this leads to cost efficiencies and minimises the amount of time a turbine
may be offline.

40
   Digital Railway (2015) More Trains, Better Connections, Greater Reliability
41
   Arcadis (2017) Digital Railway
42
   Ibid
43
   Network Rail (2020) Proven Technology
44
   Ibid
45
   Highways England (2020) Smart Motorways
46
   Highways England (2014) Strategic Business Plan 2015–2020
47
   Highways England (2020) Smart Motorways
48
   ITS UK (2020) Rise of Smart Motorways
49
   Millbrook (2020) Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Testing
50
   Windpower Engineering (2019) How Digital Twins are Transforming Wind Operations

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In addition to improving operation, maintenance and reliability, the digital model can increase annual energy production.
By virtually testing the impact on the turbine if wind speed increased or decreased, if it blew for longer, or if there was very
little wind at all, engineers are able to make evidence-based decisions such as whether to increase a turbine’s power rate
to generate more electricity when demand and prices are higher.51 GE Renewable turbines have experienced increased
megawatt-hour output of up to 7%.52

International comparators
The concepts of digitally retrofitting infrastructure assets through smart cities and smart grids have gained footing in many
areas around the globe.53

Barcelona
The city of Barcelona is committed to developing ‘CityOS’, a city operating system on an open-data platform.54 Barcelona’s
city council manages infrastructure based on open-code ‘Big Data’ technology, which provides better data governance,
quality controls and more effective privacy and security.55 This approach allows the city council to make informed, data-
driven decisions.

The city has a network of over 19,000 sensors that transmit three million daily recordings on energy, noise, waste,
weather, parking capacity, air quality, water levels and flows of bicycles, pedestrians and vehicles.56 In the period 2015 to
2019, the city reduced its water use in public parks by 25%,57 waste collection routes were optimised based on how full
municipal bins were, and more than 1,100 LED lampposts were installed which, alongside reducing energy use by 30%,
act both as free public Wi-Fi points and monitors for air pollution.58

Singapore – Smart Nation initiative
Singapore launched a smart city initiative in 2014 that consists of three key pillars: digital economy, digital society and
digital government.59 The OECD describes the initiative as ‘a comprehensive smart city strategy from which other
countries can draw lessons’, highlighting efforts to teach coding and other digital skills to those of school age or needing to
retrain.60 The strategy is also user focused and inclusive, ensuring resources are produced in multiple languages and
placing an emphasis on addressing the challenges associated with an ageing population.61

The Government of Singapore has decided to make artificial intelligence the defining issue for the next phase of its
strategy.62 This will focus on areas where Singapore believes it has a historical competitive advantage, such as intelligent
transport and logistics. The city state hopes this will enhance its competitiveness, generate economic returns, provide new
jobs and upgrade the skills and capabilities of its people. Singapore recognises that, alongside the Smart Nation initiative,
there is a need for a set of standards that allow for the data generated between different systems to be interoperable.63

51
   GE (2018) The French Connection: Digital Twins from Paris Will Protect Wind Turbines against Battering North Atlantic Gales
52
   Ibid
53
   Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (2017) Smart Retrofitting of Urban Housing
54
   Grow Smarter (2020) From Dream to Reality: Transforming Cities for a Smart, Sustainable Europe
55
   Ajuntament de Barcelona (2019) Barcelona Digital City: Putting Technology at the Service of People
56
   Ibid
57
   Ibid
58
   Harvard Kennedy School, ASH Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation (2016) How Smart City Barcelona Brought the Internet of Things to Life
59
   OECD (2019) Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia, China and India 2019 – Update
60
   Ibid
61
   Ibid
62
   Smart Nation Singapore (2019) Transforming Singapore Through Technology
63
   NIC (2017) Study on International Best Practices in Using Technology to Improve Productivity

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Alternative approaches
Retrofit or replace?
While retrofitting existing infrastructure to meet new digital standards or to take advantage of new technologies can have
numerous benefits, in some circumstances it may be more cost effective to replace ageing infrastructure entirely.

For some assets within an infrastructure network this is inevitable. As the Digital Railway will allow for more intensive use
of track, including longer and heavier trains running more closely together, many of the bridges on the rail network, which
were designed for the Victorian era and the design requirements of that time, will need to be replaced.64 Further, while the
Digital Railway programme will result in significant new capacity on existing lines, future demand will still necessitate the
construction of new infrastructure, which will provide relief to existing lines by replacing some services, moving them to
new track.65

Segregation, or partial upgrade, of an asset
There will likely be circumstances where new and old technologies coexist, at least for a time, on legacy infrastructure
assets. Technology company City Science was joint winner of the National Infrastructure Commission’s Roads for the
Future competition,66 presenting a paper on Dedicated Driverless Spaces, which would operate as segregated lanes on
existing roads for CAVs in much the same way as bus lanes are used in some cities.67

City Science argues this would ensure minimised interaction between driven and driverless vehicles, alleviating concerns
about safety and congestion caused by human and AI drivers being unable to anticipate each other in mixed traffic. It
would also simplify regulatory legal and technological challenges CAV traffic might face.68 This approach may become
more prevalent in future, enabling some benefits to be accessed earlier, allowing a test bed for further development and
providing the option of phased transitions without widescale disruption.

About ICE
Established in 1818 and with over 95,000 members worldwide, the Institution of Civil Engineers exists to deliver insights
on infrastructure for societal benefit, using the professional engineering knowledge of our global membership.

For more information please contact:

David Hawkes, Policy Manager, ICE

policy@ice.org.uk

64
   Network Rail (2020) Bridge Replacement
65
   Network Rail (2020) Crossrail 2
66
   National Infrastructure Commission (2018) Competition Winners Pave the Way for Roads for the Future
67
   City Science (2018) Roads for the Future: Dedicated Driverless Spaces
68
   Ibid

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